HAS FACEBOOK LEAKED YOUR PHONE NUMBER?

11 million at risk in UK – check now

You can now check whether your phone number was one of 533 million from a Facebook database that was recently leaked online.

To do so, visit Have I Been Pwned? ( https:// haveibeenpwned.com), then type your number into the search box. You should add the international code (eg, 44 for the UK), then remove the zero from the start of the number and click the ‘pwned?’ button.

If it has been leaked, you’ll see the message ‘Oh no — pwned!’ (see screenshot) and the number of times it appears in the database.

The site, run by Australian security expert Troy Hunt, has previously let you search only for leaked email addresses. On his blog ( www.snipca. com/37890), Hunt said he added phone numbers after seeing “near-unprecedented” visits to his site once news of the leak spread.

Facebook responded to rising concern by saying it “found and fixed” the breach in August 2019, shortly after it happened. But the data has now been published for free in a hacking forum, making it available for criminals to use. Security experts have warned that the details could be used by scammers to launch mass attacks on the public.

Researchers analysing the data say it covers Facebook users in 106 countries, including 11.5 million in the UK, 30 million Americans and 7 million Australians. It contains the phone number for Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, and co-founders Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz.

The leaked data also includes email addresses and birth dates, though not passwords or private messages.

Facebook has requested users enter their phone numbers since 2011 so it can text a code to their phone ( two-factor authentication) to confirm they’re the real account holder.

Privacy watchdogs from Ireland, the Philippines and Hong Kong are already investigating the leak.